visiting a multitude of new and used bookstores
Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2025 3:42 am
Visiting several very large and prominent bookstores, I found relatively little that could be considered radical. Two books caught my eye at an Arab bookstore: They Dare to Speak Out and Jews in America, both published about 1986. It seemed that there was nothing to be found. I had a book identifying all the bookstores in the London area, over 500 of them. All but one that specialized in politics and economics had a Marxist, third world orientation. This "Alternative Bookstore" was the only one of its kind in London. After going to the address for the bookstore and discovering that it was no longer in operation, I visited a large rare bookstore next door and asked what happened to the "Alternative Bookstore".
The shopkeeper explained that it had shut down a year ago due to financial problems -- poor management. Not only was there a lack of support for the books they sold, there was strong opposition to the phone number list bookstore. This sounded highly disturbing because now it appeared that there was almost no alternative to the Marxist political books in all of London's bookshops. A new course of action was needed. After , I would try to contact publishers by telephone! Before leaving for London, I looked at British Books in Print and found information about titles that had interested me in the Noontide data-base. What helped was noticing the names of several British, Australian, Canadian and South African publishers distributed in England, names such as Bloomfield, Veritas, KRP, and Dolphin.
Books by these publishers could not be found in any of the largest bookstores of London. However, I did learn from a sales clerk at Foyles Bookstore that KRP, Veritas and Dolphin were all distributed in England by Bloomfield Publications. This publisher was clearly the key distributor for whatever radical books I was looking for, and the address and telephone number for Bloomfield was something a helpful clerk was willing to provide. However, while in England I wanted to test my ideas about Noontide and Gordon Press; so, I called Noontide in California and spoke to someone who called himself "Steve Scott". He assured me that Noontide was indeed real and authentic.
The shopkeeper explained that it had shut down a year ago due to financial problems -- poor management. Not only was there a lack of support for the books they sold, there was strong opposition to the phone number list bookstore. This sounded highly disturbing because now it appeared that there was almost no alternative to the Marxist political books in all of London's bookshops. A new course of action was needed. After , I would try to contact publishers by telephone! Before leaving for London, I looked at British Books in Print and found information about titles that had interested me in the Noontide data-base. What helped was noticing the names of several British, Australian, Canadian and South African publishers distributed in England, names such as Bloomfield, Veritas, KRP, and Dolphin.
Books by these publishers could not be found in any of the largest bookstores of London. However, I did learn from a sales clerk at Foyles Bookstore that KRP, Veritas and Dolphin were all distributed in England by Bloomfield Publications. This publisher was clearly the key distributor for whatever radical books I was looking for, and the address and telephone number for Bloomfield was something a helpful clerk was willing to provide. However, while in England I wanted to test my ideas about Noontide and Gordon Press; so, I called Noontide in California and spoke to someone who called himself "Steve Scott". He assured me that Noontide was indeed real and authentic.